Leaders of Crimean Tatar people met with FUEN Presidium members

In Kyiv, the leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev and the Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov met with the leadership of the European organization FUEN.

KYIV (QHA) -

In Kyiv, the Leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev and the Head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov met with the President of the European FUEN organization Lorant Vincze, Vice-President Halit Habib Oglu.

The meeting was also attended by the member of the Mejlis Riza Shevkiev, the First Deputy Minister for issues of the Temporary Occupied Territiries and IDPs Yusuf Kurkchi, the Adviser to the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Ismet Yuksel, the Veteran of the National Movement of the Crimean Tatars Sinaver Kadyrov.

In his welcome speech, Lorant Vincze expressed his support to the Crimean Tatars and noted that the purpose of his trip to Ukraine was to learn more about the situation in the occupied Crimea.

“We learned more about the specifics of the issue and will work in this direction. We would like to learn from the Crimean Tatars such energy and such aspiration in fighting for rights. We are here to understand what needs to be conveyed to European society, what is the main problem for you now," he said.

During the meeting, the situation with violation of human rights in the occupied Crimea was discussed, as well as the status of the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people of the Crimea.

The leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev announced the main messages that should sound in European society regarding the situation in the occupied Crimea.

“Occupation has become one of the most terrible tragedies of our people. We have fought for many decades for the possibility of returning to our homeland, and we are forced to leave it again. We fought for decades with the Soviet totalitarian regime, and now we are fighting against the Russian regime," Mustafa-aga said.

He told foreign guests about the persecution of Crimeans by the occupation authorities on ethnic grounds. Dzhemilev noted that the mass protest of the Crimean Tatars against the Russian occupation of the peninsula provoked a series of searches, detentions and arrests of representatives of this people.

However, the occupation regime in Crimea exerts pressure on all those who protest the occupation, regardless of nationality.

“Now an atmosphere of fear reigns in the Crimea and everything is done to make the Crimean Tatars leave the peninsula. The invaders realized that they will not be able to come to an agreement with the Crimean Tatars," Dzhemilev stressed.

Mustafa-aga also noted the need for independent monitoring missions on the territory of the Crimea, which should freely visit the occupied territories in order to make reasoned conclusions.

Summing up, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people reiterated that only non-military de-occupation will allow the Crimean Tatars to return to their homeland and stop human rights violations in the Crimea.

During the meeting, the Head of the Mejlis Refat Chubarov stressed that it is necessary to increase pressure on Russia as an aggressor country, and also to apply to international authorities regarding the issue of recognizing the status of the Crimean Tatar people as indigenous.

Reference. FUEN (Federal Union of the European Nationalities) is the largest confederation of autochthonous national minorities (ethnic groups) in Europe, which includes 90 organizations from 32 European countries. It was founded in Paris in 1949.